Global Social Network effects on local spots

Texto completo

(1)Global Social Network effects on local spots. Beatriz Maroñas Rojo. Master’s Thesis. Master’s degree in Tourism Management and Planning (With a speciality/ Itinerary in Planning) at the UNIVERSITAT DE LES ILLES BALEARS. Academic year 2016/ 2017. Date _________________. Author signature ________________. UIB Master’s Thesis Supervisor _______________________________________. Supervisor signature. _____. UIB Master’s Thesis Co-Supervisor (if required) __________________________. Co-Supervisor signature. __. Accepted by the Director of the Master in ________________________________ ______________. Signature.

(2) Content Abstract: ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction: ............................................................................................................................... 4 Literature Review....................................................................................................................... 5 Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 10 Results ...................................................................................................................................... 13 Limitations: .............................................................................................................................. 36 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 37 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 38. List of figures Figure 1. Popularity of Caló des Moro from 2008 to 2017. All the categories. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017. ............................................................................................... 14 Figure 2. Popularity of Caló des Moro from 2008 to 2017 in travel category. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017. ............................................................................................... 14 Figure 3. Popularity of Caló des Moro in England from 2008 to 2017. Elaborated with Google Trends, 2017 ........................................................................................................ 15 Figure 4. Popularity of Caló des Moro in Germany from 2008 to 2017. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017. ............................................................................................... 15 Figure 5. Popularity of Caló des Moro in France from 2008 to 2017. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017 ............................................................................................................. 15 Figure 6. Spanish interest by region. Google Trend, 2017. ..................................................... 16 Figure 7. German interest by region. Google Trends, 2017. ................................................... 16 Figure 8. Popularity of Caló des Moro in the last 12 months. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017. ........................................................................................................................ 17 Figure 9. Popularity of Lavertezzo from 2008 and 2017. Elaborated with Google Trends. ... 18 Figure 10. Evolution of Caló des Moro and Lavertezzo i terms of popularity in the last 12 months. Elaborated from Google Trends, 2017. .............................................................. 18 Figure 11. Popularity of Lavertezzo in the last 12 months. Elaborated with Google Trends. . 19 2.

(3) Figure 12.Comparisson between "calodesmoro" with it's two most popular related hashtgs: in the last two months"mallorca" and "summer". ................................................................ 21 Figure 13. Level of popularity of the Caló des demo hashatag combinations on Instagram. Keyhole, 2017 .................................................................................................................. 21 Figure 14. Most related hashtags on Instagram with Caló des Moro. Source: Keyhole. The size of the terms shows the rate of relation, being the biggest ones the most related and the smaller ones the least related one. .............................................................................. 22 Figure 15. Percentage of total post per country. source: Keyhole 2017 .................................. 22 Figure 16. Keyhole Instagram post analysis. Source: Keyhole, 2017. .................................... 23 Figure 17. Level of popularity of the Caló des demo hashatag combinations on Twitter. Source: Keyhole, 2017. .................................................................................................... 24 Figure 18. Most related hashtags on Twitter with Caló des Moro. Source: Keyhole. The size of the terms shows the rate of relation, being the biggest ones the most related and the smaller ones the least related one..................................................................................... 24 Figure 19.Percentage of total post per country. source: Keyhole 2017. .................................. 25 Figure 20. Keyhole Twitter post analysis. Source: Keyhole, 2017. ........................................ 25 Figure 21. Keyhole Twitter post analysis. Source: Keyhole, 2017. ........................................ 26 Figure 22. Main domains which uses more the hashtag #calodesmoro. .................................. 26 Figure 23. #mallorca2012-2017 hashtag tracking. .................................................................. 27 Figure 24. Number of travellers who visited Mallorca between 2008 and 2016. Own elaboration from Ibestat data. .......................................................................................... 30 Figure 25. Number of tourists by period and type of accommodation. Source: Ibestat .......... 30 Figure 26.Source: Facebook 2017. .......................................................................................... 33. 3.

(4) Abstract: Social networks and blogs are a source of inspiration when it comes to find new destinations to travel. The main idea behind these networks is to connect not only with friends, family and acquaintances, but also to communicate quickly with the rest of the world. However, these changes have not only been significant at a social level but also at a spatial and geographical level, especially due to geolocation. Geolocation is a tool that allows users to obtain the geographical location of a place in a real and instantaneous way. Thanks to this tool, many people have been able to find hidden places that in the beginning were not so well-known and famous. The immediacy of these social and geolocation tools has given rise to problems of flow control and therefore a significant social and territorial impact. One of these examples are some of the beaches of Mallorca, such as Es Caló des Moro.. This project will analyze how the phenomenon of glocalization affected at tourist and territorial level, exemplifying it with concrete cases like that of Mallorca with Es Calò des Moro, as was previously mentioned. We should also not forget the concept of “Virtual tourism” which is also related to the image and expectancies generated by the use of social media and we will see how also these expectancies affect the territory.. Introduction: The studies that exist so far address the issue of how globalization has changed the conception of geographical space and how destinations or cities have also become global. There are also publications that studies the social media phenomenon in tourism and how social media can help to strategically position tourism based products and services (Manap & Adzharudin 2013), especially through user-generated content. However, in most cases, a spot. 4.

(5) can become unintentionally a tourist destination or draw a major attention for social media users due to the connection between social media and geolocation. This spontaneity and unpredictability related to the new means of information and communication that are basically internet-based brings to geographic and spatial impacts, and even new unexpected forms of tourism.. The purpose of this project is to understand and get and insight on how and why some specific spots have become “glocal” in the case of Mallorca. This project wants to show also the relationship between the impact of social media and geolocation tools in the territory. That doesn’t mean that social media generates per se an environmental and social impact in the territory, but perhaps it does in an indirect way since it contributes to the rapid share of knowledge and information of different spots around the world.. Another aim is to provide some practical insights on how public agents can use these tools to manage tourist flows and congestion derived from this uncontrolled or unexpected show of visitors.. Literature Review Glocalization studies that exist so far are concerned about how certain cultures or destinations maintain their local traditions while adapting to global fashions or tastes to attract visitors. (Salazar, 2015; Santiago, 2016) On the other hand, studies that address the relationship between social media and tourism generally analyse how social media have affected at the psychological and enterprise level to the tourism sector, (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010; Nezakati et al.; Bizirgiannia & Dionysopoulou) and how those tourists make use of social Media (Munar & Jacobsen, 2013).. 5.

(6) Available studies regarding how social networks can affect certain destinations or contribute to its massification are a minority. At present, there are no specific publications dealing with the issue of glocalization in Mallorca or how using social networks and geolocation contribute to the massification of certain places on the island. However, it’s possible to draw conclusions through the revision of studies that address the issue of globalization and social media in tourism and its implications now. The revision of those articles will contribute to establish a relationship to what happens in certain places of Mallorca, such Es Caló des Moro, which will be the focus of this study. Soja (2008) delves into the concept of Globalization in the urban spaces and gives us the key to understand the situation that Mallorca is experiencing this day. If globalization is a phenomenon that allows connection to distant places around the world, it also happens that "local events are shaped by events that occur many miles away and vice versa" (Soja 2008). This means that the local and the global are united. Through this union, globalization is "constantly localized in different ways and with different intensities" (Soja, 2008). Even though Soja’s study focuses on the city, this connection between distant places has also expand towards localities or regions, which in principle are not globalized. (ie not governed by economic principles on a global scale or that is not intended to be commercially exploited). This union between the global and the local is the result of the space-time compression given by the development of modern means of transport (Gutiérrez, 1998). The shortening of space-time relationship has propitiated a society that is in continuous movement, giving rise to spaces of flows. A space of flows has as particularity that it is a space of interrelations, of nonplaces, (Gutiérrez, 1998). The immediacy characterized from the transportation technologies is not the only factor that has affect the perception of space, but also the media or the new communication technologies, which has contributed to the elimination of spatial borders (Rifkin, 2000) or even, as Graham (1998) states, the end of geography. This new type of spatial. 6.

(7) arrangements brought by new telecommunication and information technologies (Graham, 1998) led to the glocality concept or phenomena. Abínzano (2005), quoted by Santiago (2016) mentions that glocalization is a particular phenomenon since “neighbouring places are often more related to distant places than to their immediate surroundings. And which in turn imply an inverse, dialectical way, which feeds back processes"(Santiago, 2016). In other words, it may be possible that a place may be better known by people who live far away than by local people, or be more popular with outsiders than among locals. Santiago (2016) also mentions that glocalization is not homogeneous, since "flows do not occur with the same intensity in all places"(Santiago, 2016). The flow increase, can go from the local, to the territorial and the global” (Santiago, 2016) This implies, for example, in the case of Caló des Moro, that it can be popular both locally, regionally and globally at the same time, attracting both locals and foreigners. The knowledge of local or “glocal” places is produced by the access to information provided by the internet, specially from the new tools related to social media. The immediacy provided by social media, along with the transport revolution and geolocation has provoked that a place can be local and global at the same time (Salazar, 2005). The “era of access” in which we live today (Rifkin, 2000; Ortiz-Boza, 2010) is characterized by a new type of modern human being who “lives part of his life comfortably in the virtual world of cyberspace; knows well the operation of a network economy and is more interested in having exciting and entertaining experiences than in accumulating things. […] These new men and women are starting to leave the property behind. Their world is the world of hyperreality and momentary experience: a world of networks, portals, and connectivity. For them, what counts is access; to be disconnected is to die.” (Rifkin, 2000). The knowledge and daily usage of technologies is also part of a glocal attitude, as well as a way of life (Ortiz 2014). Munar & Jacobsen (2013), quoting Douglas & Isherwood, 1980,. 7.

(8) also state that “the pleasure of knowing and sharing information about destinations and other holiday aspects are important parts of the enjoyment of travel” (Munar & Jacobsen 2013). Sharing experiences in real time through social media has made those users or modern human beings into “prosumers”. According to Beltrán (2011), a prosumer is a citizen who "not only consumes information, but is able to generate information and share it on the Internet, becoming a producer at the same time." Generating and consuming information about certain destinations is at the same time very linked to geolocation. Beltrán (2011) explains that the union of GPS systems to mobiles and Social Media has generated the opportunity to "communicate and share the concrete place in which we are in each moment" raising the concept of "social geolocalization", born from the new forms of socialization that arise from tools such as Foursquare or Gowalla (Beltran, 2011). Now, after the close of Gowalla in 2012 and the reinvention of Foursquare as a location intelligence company for business (Miller, 2017), Facebook, and Instagram play the role of social geolocation platforms. Instagram was initially created as an application for check-ins to compete to Foursquare. However, Instagram end growing in success because users appreciated the way in which the content is shared and viewed more than just the “map” of places where someone has been. That’s why Instagram removed in 2016 the photo maps (F.M., 2017). Recently, Instagram included the location and hashtag Stories which allow users to apply a location sticker inside their photo or video. The idea behind this function is to offer a way to explore any location in the world and find stories related with their interests (Minutouno, 2017). Since Tourism is an information-intense industry, social Media serves as a source of inspiration to travellers or people who want to explore new places. This issue has been addressed by Xiang & Gretzel (2010). In their research, they demonstrate that social media has a great influence on travel decisions since it works as a source of information for travellers through the comments, opinions, and personal experiences from other users.. 8.

(9) Both authors refer to social media as any social media Website that implies any form of consumer-generated content (CGC) such as blogs, virtual communities, wikis, social networks, collaborative tagging, and media files shared on sites like YouTube and Flickr (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). They also remark the important role that search engines play in tourism since they serve as the “getaway” to travel-related information as well as an important marketing channel through which destinations and tourism enterprises can reach and persuade potential visitors. (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). Search engines also promote directly and indirectly social media to travel information searchers. The reason is that social media are updated constantly since they operate through UGC, which ‘‘invites’’ search engines to index social media pages more frequently. Social media users usually include hyperlinks, and organize the content through tags which will influence their ranking within search results in a positive way creating an ever-growing link structure on the internet. This greater scope can also be achieved because social media enables the synchronicity between different platforms, sharing the same post or picture in multiple structures at once. This particularity allows a massive reach in an instant (Munar & Jacobsen 2013). This massive reach leads to the concept known as “virality”. Lavertezzo is an example of this phenomenon. A video that has been post by a group of friends enjoying their holidays on Facebook became terribly successful and within two weeks, that idyllic spot suffered the consequences of massification. That means that viralization works as the modern version of the traditional word-of-mouth. Experience and trust are two characteristics that makes social media so successful among users (Kim & Kim 2011), since the content is generated by other “peers” who document their lives though the media. With social Media and geolocation, any spot of Mallorca can be known and reach, and that was the case of Caló des Moro and the aforementioned example of Lavertezzo. Both cases, Caló des Moro and Lavertezzo brings up the paradox that glocality implies:. 9.

(10) In a globalized world, where there is a discourse of homogeneity, destinations are forced to be more singular in order to achieve a competitive advantage. That means that people feel attracted by the local or “non-globalized” aspects of a culture or destination (Salazar, 2005). In many cases, tourist companies and DMOs, try to transmit the illusion of locality, when in fact villages and locals are "glocalized". Therefore, destinations are "presented and packaged as local for their global export" (Salazar, 2005). Another paradox that glocality brings with the reduction of distances is congestion. The easier the way to reach a destination, the greater the number of people travelling. Therefore, reaching a spot is not so fast as supposed to be. This is the situation that Mallorca lives this days, especially in high season. The access to Caló des Moro has been closed since May to all private vehicles that do not belong to residents of the municipality of Santanyí, and a shuttle bus system was implemented to mitigate the serious saturation of vehicles and people. In that sense, it’s interesting the contributions from Zeng, Liu, Wang, & Chen, (2013). They stablish that social media can be a tool for dealing with traffic jam congestion, especially during holidays since social media can provide traffic flow information and “forecast the geographic distribution of potential tourists” (Zeng, Liu, Wang, & Chen, 2013). Methodology The methodology adopted is exploratory and interpretive as did Dwivedi, Yadav, & Venkatesh (2011) did in their research. The data collection consisted on searching information in different online tools made to analyze and identify trends and patterns. Those tools where: Google Trends, Hashtagify and Keyhole. Google is, according to Xiang & Gretzel (2010), the dominant search engine in the online search market and in the travel industry, and is also among the top 10 Websites that generate most of the upstream traffic to travel-specific Websites (Xiang & Gretzel 2010), therefore, the most suitable tool for analyze the online evolution of Caló des Moro in the 10.

(11) internet and media world. Hashtagify and Keyhole are both web services that helped to explore the popularity of Es Caló des Moro in different Social Networks, and stablish comparisons with other destinations, such as Lavertezzo, a spot that has suffered the effects of social media. We have also used social media search engines (SNS) as Kim & Kim (2011) did in order to gather information regarding content and publications about Es Caló del Moro. The SNS engines used were: Facebook and Instagram. The reason behind the exploration of those social media tools was that both have the biggest number of users, as well as being the most popular among travelers. To see how social media affect travelers today, we have taken data collected from Booking.com 2017 survey for several reasons: The first reason is the scope of the survey: the study was conducted among a representative sample of 1.000 respondents from each of the following countries: United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Germany, China, India and 500 from: the Netherlands, Croatia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Denmark, Belgium and Sweden. In total, data was collected from 15,077 respondents (+18 years) from January 11 to January 30, 2017. (Booking.com, 2017). Among the countries surveyed, United Kingdom and Germany are included, as well as other nationalities who also come to visit Mallorca (France, Italy, Sweden). In order to see how social media contributes to the glocality of spots, concretely of Es Caló des Moro in Mallorca, several steps were carried out: The first step has been to use Google Trends to analyze the popularity of Caló des Moro on the internet. This step helped to see how the interest of this spot has increased over time. Several searches were made: the first search was of general nature and the other using tourism related filters such as "trips" and "hobbies and free time". This search was also split in two periods: one during the last 12 months and other in the last 10 years (dated from September. 11.

(12) 9, 2008 to September 9, 2017). This time span has been chosen because 2008 was the year in which Facebook began its expansion and began to be popular in Spain and the rest of the world. During this period, other social networks such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Instagram became popular too, concretely between 2011 and 2012. The search has also been filtered by countries, more specifically Germany and Great Britain. A search for Lavertezzo was also made following the same patterns as Caló des Moro. The decision to look also the online influence of Lavertezzo is that its served as a comparative example of how social media can affect a spot. The second step consisted on analyzing the popularity of El Caló des Moro in social media using Hashtagify, and Keyhole. We have used tools ranging from the general to the particular: Hashtagify served to measure the general influence of the hashtag #calodesmoro in different social networks and blogs, while keyhole served to measure more concretely the influence on Twitter and Instagram. In this case, the tool has allowed a single search using several hashtags at a time. The reference hashtag was again #calodesmoro, followed by other related hashtags which has also the most number of publications on Instagram. The combination made as search criteria was the following: "calodesmoro", "calódesmoro", "calodelmoro", "escalodesmoro" and "caladelmoro". This tool also displays graphs offering real time data, which allows a more accurate analysis. In Hashtagify it was decided to track #calodesmoro because it is the hashtag with the largest number of publications on Instagram (a total of 10,726 in September 9). This tool has also been useful because it showed the related hashtags, which make it possible to stablish a comparison between them. Since Instagram is the social network in which the hashtag #caldesmoro is more published (according to Keyhole analysis), the third step was to do a search from the social network Instagram itself. The first thing was to make use of the Instagram search engine using the. 12.

(13) hashtag #calodesmoro and #mallorca to search the content on those social networks and summarize the total of hashtags related to Caló des Moro along with Mallorca. It has also been also analyzed the official Instagram account of the Balearic Islands “tourismoislasbaleares”, as well as the social media strategies undertaken by the official tourism organization of the Balearic Island (ATB). The comparison between the content generated by official institutions and travelers helped to see how both parts contribute to the envision of a spot through the Media. Since not just images, but travel reviews have a great power of influence in the travel world, it has been analyzed user comments publicized on TripAdvisor and the Facebook page dedicated to Caló des Moro. The search for Tripadvisor reviews was made in the middle of summer, specifically mid-August 2017. Only the first 10 results pages were selected because they were the most recent ones. It has been also establish a comparison between the number of travelers and the ways to travel that people has adopted from 2010 and 2016, collecting data from Ibestat.. Results: The results showed through Google Trends indicated that, in general, Caló des Moro began to grow in popularity in 2012, which was also the year that Instagram became one of the trendiest social networks. This growth in popularity also coincides with the development of new applications and socialization tools, as well as the inclusion of GPS in mobile phones. 2012 it’s, in addition, the year in which Facebook included the feature of sharing places and location. The following graph shows the evolution of Caló des Moro in the last 9 years. The part marked with a yellow circle corresponds to the year 2012. We can see that it’s online interest experienced a great rise compared to 2011. It’s also interesting how this popularity grew in the 13.

(14) last five years from 2012 to 2017: it has been experiencing a continuous growth, doubling the interest in a 50% from 2012 and 2016. The highest peak of popularity takes place between 2015 and 2017, which are the years in which Facebook and Instagram allowed the transmission of videos and streaming. This show that the popularity of Caló des Moro go hand in hand with the improvement of social networks features related with instantaneity, usability and geolocation, therefore there is a correlativity between social network development and the popularity of this natural spot.. Figure 1. Popularity of Caló des Moro from 2008 to 2017. All the categories. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017.. Figure 2. Popularity of Caló des Moro from 2008 to 2017 in travel category. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017.. 14.

(15) The results showed by the two main issuing countries, Germany and England, show similar results: In 2012, the interest towards Caló des Moro grew in both countries, especially in England, and has increased throughout the years.. Figure 3. Popularity of Caló des Moro in England from 2008 to 2017. Elaborated with Google Trends, 2017. Figure 4. Popularity of Caló des Moro in Germany from 2008 to 2017. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017.. It’s also interesting the results showed from France: The awareness of the existence of Caló des Moro was very low comparing until 2015, which was also the year in which the popularity notably grew, as it can see in the general graph of popularity:. Figure 5. Popularity of Caló des Moro in France from 2008 to 2017. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017. 15.

(16) If we compare Germany and Spain, in Spain the interest is exclusively focused on the Balearic Islands, while in other regions of the peninsula it only arouses some interest in the Valencian community, Catalonia, Madrid and Andalucía (2% or less). In the case of Germany, the interest is distributed more equally in 7 regions which are: Hamburg, North RhineWestphalia, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg (in a scale from 100 to 67). This result reflects the glocal paradox: Caló des Moro awakens more interest in more regions of Germany than in Spain. That result shows that the 7 German regions show a high awareness or knowledge of the existence of Caló des Moro, while in Spain this knowledge is concentrate more at a local level.. Figure 6. Spanish interest by region. Google Trend, 2017.. Figure 7. German interest by region. Google Trends, 2017.. 16.

(17) We have to keep in mind that the score showed in the graphs is done in relation to the total of searches and not the population. It has also verified that the term "Caló des Moro" has aroused the interest of 16 countries on a larger and smaller scale, which are, in order of popularity: Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Argentina, Poland and United States. The results have also shown the seasonal interest of Caló des Moro, being the summer months the ones that generate a greater interest and popularity.. Figure 8. Popularity of Caló des Moro in the last 12 months. Elaborated with Google Trends data, 2017.. In the case of Lavertezzo, the results show that its popularity on the internet during the last 10 years has been scarce, while the interest has increased dramatically in July 2017, specifically from 23 to 29 July 2017 which is precisely the month in which a video shared by a group of friends on Facebook showing their experience in that natural area (which was at the time barely known) became viral and in a matter of weeks began to be overcrowded with tourists, especially coming from Italy. This case shows that social media has a great influence on travel decisions as well as contributing to the glocality of spots.. 17.

(18) Figure 9. Popularity of Lavertezzo from 2008 and 2017. Elaborated with Google Trends.. The awareness of Lavertezzo was basically inexistent or really low just 10 months ago, especially during 2016. After the publication of the video on Facebook and its viralization, the online awareness of that spot rose dramatically, especially in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria and Czech Republic. In the following graph, we can see a comparison between Lavertezzo and Caló des Moro in terms of popularity. It can be appreciated that in general, during the last year Caló des Moro was more popular, but in July of 2017, Lavertezzo’s popularity increased in a 75% from the previous month after it’s viralization on social networks.. Figure 10. Evolution of Caló des Moro and Lavertezzo i terms of popularity in the last 12 months. Elaborated from Google Trends, 2017.. 18.

(19) Figure 11. Popularity of Lavertezzo in the last 12 months. Elaborated with Google Trends.. According to Hashtagify, the popularity rate of de tag #calodesmoro is 8.5% and this popularity is more pronounced during the summer months, especially on July. The hashtags that have a greater correlation with #caldesmoro are: #mallorca and #summer, with a rating of 75% and 50% respectively. The remaining hashtags of the list (#santanyí, #september, #palma, #loves_mallorca, #salmunia, #illes, #playa and #spain) have a correlativity rating of 25%. Among those correlated mentioned hashtags, the ones with greater popularity are: #summer, #spain, #playa, #mallorca, #september and #palma with a popularity rate of ,77.5%, 71.5%, 63%, 60.7%, 52.5% and 51.9% respectively. Then comes the ones with the lowest popularity which are: #illes, #santanyí, #loves_mallorca and #salmunia with 28.7%, 26.4%, 6.7% and 1%.. 19.

(20) Table 1.Popularity and correlativity ratings of hashtags in relation with "Calosdesmoro" during the last 2 months. Hashtagify.com, 2017.. The results obtained by graphically comparing the hashtags with greater popularity and correlation with #calodesmoro (#mallorca and #summer) are the following: The hashtag #mallorca has been very popular during mid-July, with 57.2% of popularity. The hashtag #summer has maintained almost the same rank of popularity during July and August with a rate of 71%. These results show that this greater scope of popularity of those two related hashtags increases the chance of Caló des Moro to be seen on social media.. 20.

(21) Figure 12.Comparisson between "calodesmoro" with it's two most popular related hashtgs: in the months"mallorca" and "summer".. last two. The results obtained with Keyhole show that in a period of two weeks (from August 28 to September 10), a total of 291 posts were made from a total of 236 users. However, the most interesting figures are the reach and impact of publications: within those two weeks, more than 100,000 users have seen posts containing some of the hashtags related to Caló des Moro, and those publications have been viewed more of 100,000 times.. Figure 13. Level of popularity of the Caló des demo hashatag combinations on Instagram. Keyhole, 2017. 21.

(22) The most related hashtags to Caló des Moro on Instagram are: #mallorca, #beach, #spain, #travel, #majorca, #vacation, #santanyí#, #sun, #summer, #santayí, #nature, #paradise, #beautiful and #palmademallorca. This would be a list of hashtags that are more frequently used in publications that refer to Caló des Moro:. Figure 14. Most related hashtags on Instagram with Caló des Moro. Source: Keyhole. The size of the terms shows the rate of relation, being the biggest ones the most related and the smaller ones the least related one.. As for the number of posts per country, according to Keyhole, 99,20% of publications released between August 28 to September 9 which use some of the tracked hashtags (#calodesmoro, #escalodesmoro, #caladelmoro, #calodelmoro, #calódesmoro) come from users located in Spain, while the remaining 0,80% comes from the United States.. Figure 15. Percentage of total post per country. source: Keyhole 2017. 22.

(23) The posts with more number of likes that refer to Caló des Moro range from 3000 to 1000 likes. The totality of those publications are original posts, which indicates that each of those publications have been made by people who have been on that spot. Most of the publications are positive or neutral (34.5% positive and 57.7% neutral), while only 2.7 % are negative. Compared to Twitter and as some authors have indicated, Instagram is a social network in which people usually post positive content, while Twitter is often a network where news and opinions of different topic are shared.. Figure 16. Keyhole Instagram post analysis. Source: Keyhole, 2017.. On Twitter, the combined search of tags related to #calosdesmoro do not have the same scope as Instagram: In two weeks, a total of 4,197 people has seen posts in Twitter related to the tags #calodesmoro, #escalodesmoro, #calodelmoro #caladelmoro and #calódesmoro and 23.

(24) there was a total of 5,845 impressions, which would be the equivalent number of times which those have been viewed.. Figure 17. Level of popularity of the Caló des demo hashatag combinations on Twitter. Source: Keyhole, 2017.. Many of the related hashtags on Twitter are in English and German: #mallorca, #holidays, #urlaub, #balearicislands, #beach, #beachlife #balearen, #travelblogger, #majorca, etc. are an example. From of all of them, #mallorca is the most frequently used.. Figure 18. Most related hashtags on Twitter with Caló des Moro. Source: Keyhole. The size of the terms shows the rate of relation, being the biggest ones the most related and the smaller ones the least related one.. As for the number of posts per country, 14.29% come from the posts come from users of the United States, while 28.57% come from users in the UK and another 28.57% from Spain and Switzerland another 28.57%.. 24.

(25) Figure 19.Percentage of total post per country. source: Keyhole 2017.. Most of those posts on Twitter have been created and published via mobile with a rate of 75%. 91% of those posts were original, while 8.3% were shared or retweeted. 41.7% of those posts were positive while 16.7% negative.. Figure 20. Keyhole Twitter post analysis. Source: Keyhole, 2017.. 25.

(26) Figure 21. Keyhole Twitter post analysis. Source: Keyhole, 2017.. The principal domains which have more publications with the hashtag #calodesmoro and its variants are Instagram, followed by Twitter and Beachmap.info.. Figure 22. Main domains which uses more the hashtag #calodesmoro.. The results obtained in the thirds step, which consisted on tracking the hashtags and contend related with Mallorca and Caló des Moro, showed that adding all the combinations we used. in. Keyhole:. #calodesmoro,. #calodelmoro. #calódesmoro,. #caladelmoro. and. #escalodesmoro, made a total of 15,473 hashtags on September 10. In contrast, only the hashtag of #mallorca itself had a total of 5,619,012 publications on September 10. The results displayed have also shown the following hashtags: #mallorca2015, #mallorca2016 and #mallorca2017. It has searched the range from #mallorca2012 to 26.

(27) #mallorca2017. The number of publications for each of those hashtags has been growing dramatically, especially those ranging from 2015 to 2017, as can be showed in the following graph:. #mallorca20XX hashtag tracking 80.747 60.115 1.019. 5.508. 12.664. 23.804. #mallorca2012 #mallorca2013 #mallorca2014 #mallorca2015 #mallorca2016 #mallorca2017. Figure 23. #mallorca2012-2017 hashtag tracking.. If we take into account the great increase in popularity in the number of publications related to Mallorca and the relationship that this hashtag has with #calodesmoro, although the latter has less publications compared to #mallorca, this implies that the scope of publications of Caló des Moro is much larger thanks to this combination of hashtags, and therefore greater the number of Instagram users and travelers that can see or discover that place. In that sense, hashtags create a synergy. The growth in publications related to Mallorca coincides with the increase of visitors not only to Mallorca but also to Caló des Moro. It is also necessary to remark that the combinations that can be made with other popular related hashtags are very wide and expands the scope of public and also the chance of being discovered in social media. Many of the Instagram posts are original publications from people who enjoy the place in situ and therefore, people who have traveled to Mallorca either from the peninsula or other country, as well as local people who also go to that beach.. 27.

(28) The pictures that users shared on Instagram have a great influence on other Instagram users. According to Booking.com 2017 survey, social networks play a very important role in deciding where to travel the first few times, especially on people between 18 and 34 years old. In fact, almost half (44%) of the millennials confirm that they use social networks to decide where to travel, and more than half (55%) say that social networks inspire them to try new travel experiences. Millennials are the most emotionally affected by what they see in social networks: almost half (45%) of the respondents between 18 and 34 years confirmed that the contents in social networks make them feel as if everyone traveled more than them, and 44% admit that they believe they are missing out on new travel experiences. The competitive nature of this generation is also shown in the results: half of the surveyed (46%) indicated that they feel jealousy of the trips they see of other in their social networks. In addition, one in three travelers (34%) points out that they try new experiences and spots to post new photos on their social networks. (Booking.com, 2017) This study also reveals that it could be the popularity in social networks and the fear of staying out which drives the perception of almost three out of five (58%) people between 18 and 34, who think they are more adventurous than the previous generation. This is a trend that occurs in all generations: the feeling of being more adventurous than its predecessors is a feeling that is repeated in more than half of travelers (54%) between 35 and 54 years and half (50%) of those over 55 years. (Booking.com, 2017). If we compare the success of social networks and the number of tourists who visit Mallorca, we can see that the number of visits has increase greatly. It is true that we cannot say that people’s main reason to visit Mallorca are due to social Media, since many other factors influence the decisions of those travelers (especially due the fact that Mallorca was a popular. 28.

(29) destination many years before the invention of social media) but the discovery of different spots thanks to social media and the internet it’s possible, especially with geolocation. The figures show that people who visit Mallorca is more independent thanks to the internet: even though it exists markets as the German that continue to come to Mallorca through travel package, the number of people who visits Mallorca without package became greater than people that do so and also the number of people who rents accommodation has increased greatly. Rental accommodation has become very popular in the last 5 years. The years in which social networks and geolocation increased in popularity were also the years in which Airbnb experienced a successful entrance in Spain in 2012. Therefore, the different services developed thanks to the internet make it possible not just access to knowledge but also reach different spots thanks to GPS, especially with Google maps, a tool that not just recommends and show spots of a destination, but also offers ways to reach that place (by car or other mean of transport.) In that sense, social networks play a big role in the experience of travel and it’s connected or related with multiple business of the travel sector. What relates social media, and Airbnb and other pages is the freedom of choice and more independence. Tourist rentals are also consequence of the era of access, since it’s a business that became popular on the internet and became extremely successful at the same time as social networks such Facebook and Instagram. Airbnb allows filter by any spot and destination, and choose accommodation near that spot. That is the case with Caló des Moro: Airbnb allows to rent a house in Santanyí near the beach. With mobile phones and geolocation, a tourist can do all the process of discover a place, choose accommodation, and use GPS to reach different spots. That’s is the reason that is difficult in Mallorca to find and empty spot in high season: everything is connected today with the internet.. 29.

(30) Number of Travellers between 2008 and 2016 12.000.000,00 10.000.000,00 8.000.000,00 6.000.000,00 4.000.000,00 2.000.000,00 -. ILLES BALEARS Total. Mallorca Total. Figure 24. Number of travellers who visited Mallorca between 2008 and 2016. Own elaboration from Ibestat data. ILLES BALEARS Mallorca 2015_Acumulated Total Hotel or similar Property accomodation Rental accommodation Acommodation of friends and relatives Otros. 12.541.968,00. 8.806.950,00. 8.517.738,00. 6.206.634,00. 643.222,00. 398.869,00. 1.703.607,00. 1.135.320,00. 1.022.543,00. 682.630,00. 654.858,00. 383.498,00. 13.524.502,00. 9.650.469,00. 8.991.577,00. 6.732.708,00. 2014_Total Total Hotel or similar Property accomodation Rental accommodation Acommodation of friends and relatives Otros. 780.451,00. 548.425,00. 2.010.660,00. 1.291.965,00. 1.083.089,00. 742.673,00. 658.726,00. 334.699,00. 13.049.783,00. 9.479.719,00. 9.024.322,00. 6.897.333,00. 832.447,00. 621.552,00. 1.652.899,00. 901.440,00. 980.209,00. 731.736,00. 559.907,00. 327.658,00. 12.626.128,00. 9.173.794,00. 8.709.846,00. 6.652.017,00. 864.519,00. 569.572,00. 1.559.895,00. 857.761,00. 1.099.687,00. 821.277,00. 392.180,00. 273.166,00. 12.435.958,00. 8.925.761,00. 9.025.957,00. 6.715.281,00. 831.829,00. 546.798,00. 1.071.774,00. 604.609,00. 1.139.048,00. 821.152,00. 367.349,00. 237.920,00. 8.696.943,00. 5.950.560,00. 6.478.865,00. 4.555.417,00. 471.306,00. 294.659,00. 716.955,00. 354.901,00. 751.873,00. 548.119,00. 277.945,00. 197.463,00. 2013_Total Total Hotel or similar Property accomodation Rental accommodation Acommodation of friends and relatives Otros. 2012_Total Total Hotel or similar Property accomodation Rental accommodation Acommodation of friends and relatives Otros. 2011_Total Total Hotel or similar Property accomodation Rental accommodation Acommodation of friends and relatives Otros. 2010_Acumulado Total Hotel or similar Property accomodation Rental accommodation Acommodation of friends and relatives Otros. Figure 25. Number of tourists by period and type of accommodation. Source: Ibestat. 30.

(31) The last step showed very interesting results: social media contributes to generate different perceptions of the same reality. Social media is a source which in general shows an idealized image of Caló des Moro but it has become also a way in which some users show its discontent and the glocal reality that has transformed Caló des Moro. Some examples are the following: The image below corresponds to a video post showing a bird view of Caló des Moro. It was publicized on the Facebook page of a travel blog called Wonderful Places in July 9 of this year. In the day that this screencap was taken (two weeks after its publication) it has reached 56.383 displays. We can see also that this travel page makes a compilation of “paradisiacal spots” around the world, reposting videos from other users. In this case, the video was originally post by another user on Instagram, and shared on Facebook. This implies that the reach of this video is even greater since social media create synergies between them, especially since Facebook acquired Instagram. The video doesn’t show the truth of Caló des Moro in high season: there is no people and is showed as very remote and difficult to reach, generating the feeling on the viewer that is a place that is yet undiscovered when in truth it’s a massifier spot in summer. One example of the perception that this kind of videos and images can cause on viewers is one of the comments made on that video by a Facebook user, as can be seen in the image: “It’s a shame we didn’t know about this when we went all there. Looks a beautiful place for sunbathe and for the kids to play”.. 31.

(32) Image 1. Publication shares on a travel facebook page, originally post by another user on Instagram. Source: Facebook, 2017.. On the other hand, some users shared post commenting the news of viralization of Lavertezzo and even compared the situation that this place lived this summer with the owercrowding of Caló des Moro:. Image 2. News shared on Facebook by a user, who finds Lavertezzo situation relatable to the Es Caló des Moro one. Souce: Facebook, 2017.. 32.

(33) In the official Facebook page of Caló des Moro, a user posted an idyllic image of the beach with no people, however, another user, who seem a friend or acquaintance breaks the magic by asking “at what time did you go to find the beach like this?” and his reply was “before 6 in the morning”. He mentions that at 7:30 you can find people on the beach.. Figure 26.Source: Facebook 2017.. The glocal paradox is reflected with this kind of comments that “breaks the magic”. For example, in the same Page, other user posted the following comment:. Image 3. Source: Facebook 2017.. People who go to Caló des Moro expects to find the paradise that social media spreads, but when they reach the spot, they face reality: more people like them want to experience the same, so there is not really a secretive place.. 33.

(34) Another page that shows the real situation of Caló des Moro during summer is Tripadvisor. The results that are shown are interesting, since unlike Instagram, the most recent publications published during that period were more negative, since many of the comments referred to the massification of the beach. Of all the analyzed social networks that work through USG, Tripadvisor has been the only one that shows real content about the "glocality" of the beach, that is to say, it is neither as little known, nor as idyllic as it seems. From the 10 first results that appeared after searching Caló des Moro, 5 were negative. Some examples of negative comments from the 10 first results publicized in August are the following ones:. 34.

(35) Image 4. Source: Tripadvisor, 2017.. The last comment from “Lorena S” is an interesting one since she begins her comment with “We decided to go visit this cove by the amount of recommendations we read, and it was the worst decision of the whole trip” and then continuous saying: “Horrible, it looked like Magaluf, people screaming and the water, which from the top seemed to have a nice color, was dirty and full of plastics. This island is not what it was, better stay in the beach of Palma or choose another destination for the holidays.” In terms of glocality it’s interesting to see the contrast between that comments on Tripadvisor and the images that offers the official Instagram account of the Balearic Island with idealized pictures of beaches in summer with no people and no signs of any saturation o dirt:. 35.

(36) Image 5. Source: @turismoislasbaleares, Instagram, 2017.. As we can appreciate, this tourism account is used mainly as a marketing tool to promote the Balearic Islands offering an image of harmony and beauty. They have publicized an image to conscious tourists to keep clean the beaches. However, instead of trying to raise awareness the image seems to try to hide the problem of cleanliness in Mallorca beaches since the image is unreal.. Limitations: One of the limitations founded while doing the research on Google Trends is that in the results obtained by country doesn’t say the nationality of the users. For instance, we don’t know from the result obtained in Spain which percentage comes from locals and which from foreigners. One factor has to be taken into account: the results show the searches made in a specific place of a topic in relation to the total searches done in that country, that is to say, that it is not measured by population.. 36.

(37) One of the limitations of Keyhole as a tool is that it does not allow to make searches beyond two weeks. The tool just allowed to obtain results from August 27, 2017 to September 10, 2017. As for the survey used, one limitations is its range and diversity, since it does not allow a more specific or concrete approach, as would have been a survey conducted exclusively for tourists visiting Mallorca.. Conclusion: Tourism is a global phenomenon, which is not only a consequence of globalization, but also one of its generators: tourism inevitably promotes the establishment of interactions and dependencies between multiple territories of the planet (López, Pardo, Romo, Dagostino, Sánchez, Pineda, & Fabeiro, 2012). Social networks would be one of the most important generators of this globalization since they reveal places little known internationally. With this research, it has been tried to show with concrete data how Caló des Moro massification is largely due to its knowledge or diffusion in social networks. This study shed light to the phenomenon of glocality in Mallorca: a place can become more popular and known by people from other countries than by local people. This study would show a curious phenomenon: it is possible that someone who has spent years living in Mallorca has echoed that beach by a publication of a foreign blog or a post on Facebook or Instagram of a tourist who lives for miles. The power of social networks is very big, and although they are generally viewed as a marketing and promotional tool (Page & Buhalis, 2013). Showing the case of Caló des Moro, this reaserch aims to open the way to the idea that social networks can be tools to decongest or control the flows of tourists in different areas thanks to geolocation and thus allow a better experience for visitors and to reduce the impact by "relocating" these tourists through real-time 37.

(38) recommendations. Social networks can contribute to bring an image that is not real, and that has happened with Caló des Moro. People want to recreate the illusion on Instagram of being in a paradise but the same social media pages are starting to show that this spot is not so heavenly due the presence of a great number of people. Social Media accounts from official tourism agencies from the Balearic island follow a strategy based of showing a paradisiacal image of Mallorca, contributing unintentionally to distort the true situation of Mallorca and its massification.. Bibliography Booking.com. (2017). Tu próximo destino lo decidirán las redes sociales. Obtenido de https://news.booking.com/tu-proximo-destino-lo-decidiran-las-redes-sociales/ Borja, J., Castells, M., Belil, M., & Benner, C. (1998). Local y global: la gestión de las ciudades en la era de la información. Madrid: Taurus.. Boza, M. D. L. O. (2011). Glocalidad y posmercado:¿ sellos de la sociedad del siglo XXI?. Contribuciones desde Coatepec, (20), 120-125.. Dwivedi, M., Yadav, A., & Venkatesh, U. (2011). Use of social media by national tourism organizations: a preliminary analysis. Information Technology & Tourism, 13(2), 93103.. F.M., Y. (06 de Septiembre de 2017). Adiós al mapa de fotos de Instagram, la red social ha decidido eliminarlo. Genbeta. Obtenido de https://www.genbeta.com/actualidad/adios-al-mapa-de-fotos-de-instagram-la-redsocial-ha-decidido-eliminarlo. Govers, R. (2005, November 24). Virtual Tourism Destination Image: Glocal identities constructed, perceived and experienced. ERIM Ph.D. Series Research in Management. Erasmus Research Institute of Management. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/6981.. 38.

(39) Hays, S., Page, S. J., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations. Current issues in Tourism, 16(3), 211-239. Graham, S. (1998). The end of geography or the explosion of place? Conceptualizing space, place and information technology. Progress in human geography, 22(2), 165-185.. Hinojosa, V. (31 de 05 de 2017). El poder de las redes sociales en los viajes de los milenials. Hosteltur. Obtenido de https://www.hosteltur.com/122326_poder-redes-socialesviajes-milenials.html Kim, S. B., & Kim, D. Y. (2011). Travel information search behavior and social networking sites: The case of US college students.. López, G. B. (2015). La geolocalización social. Polígonos. Revista de Geografía, (27), 97-118.. López, Á. L., Pardo, G. L., Romo, E. A., Dagostino, R. M. C., Sánchez, R. E., Pineda, H. A., ... & Fabeiro, C. P. (2012). Lo glocal y el turismo. Nuevos paradigmas de interpretación.. Manap, K. A., & Adzharudin, N. A. (2013). The Role of User Generated Content (UGC) in Social Media for Tourism Sector. In The 2013 WEI International Academic Conference Proceedings (pp. 52-58).. Marinovic, M., & Andrlic, B. (2012). Social geolocation in tourism–interrelationship of Web 2.0 and geography. In Annals of DAAAM for 2012 & Proceedings of the 23rd International DAAAM Symposium (Vol. 1, No. 23, pp. 337-340).. Mazón, A. M., & Moraleda, L. F. (2013). La cooperación público privada en el ámbito de la promoción de los destinos. El análisis de redes sociales como propuesta metodológica. Cuadernos de turismo, (31), 199-223.. Miguéns, J., Baggio, R., & Costa, C. (2008). Social media and tourism destinations: TripAdvisor case study. Advances in tourism research, 26(28), 1-6.. 39.

(40) Miller, N. (28 de Marzo de 2017). After Years of Challenges, Foursquare Has Found its Purpose -- and Profits. Entrepreneur. Obtenido de https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290543 Minutouno. (24 de Mayo de 2017). Instagram lanza Stories por hashtag y localización. Minutouno. Obtenido de https://www.minutouno.com/notas/1553072-instagramlanza-stories-hashtag-y-localizacion. Munar, A. M., & Jacobsen, J. K. S. (2013). Trust and involvement in tourism social media and web-based travel information sources. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 13(1), 1-19.. Ortiz-Boza, M. D. L. (2014). Glocalidad, sociedad posmercado y acceso: tres categorías de Jeremy Rifkin para un marco conceptual. Contribuciones desde Coatepec, (26).. Rifkin, J., Álvarez, J. F., & Teira, D. (2000). La era del acceso: la revolución de la nueva economía. Barcelona: Paidós.. Salazar, N. B. (2005). Más allá de la Globalización: La «Glocalización» del turismo. Política y sociedad, 42(1), 135-149.. Serrano, N. (28 de Agosto de 2017). Las redes sociales decidirán su destino de vacaciones. Expansión. Obtenido de http://www.expansion.com/economiadigital/companias/2017/06/28/5952c42cca4741c72d8b4671.html Soja, E. W. (2008). Postmetrópolis. Estudios críticos sobre las ciudades y las regiones. Madrid.. Xiang, Z. & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of social media in online travel information search. Tourism Management, 31 (2), 179-188.. Zeng, B., & Gerritsen, R. (2014). What do we know about social media in tourism? A review. Tourism Management Perspectives, 10, 27-36.. 40.

(41) Zeng, K., Liu, W., Wang, X., & Chen, S. (2013). Traffic congestion and social media in china. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 28(1), 72-77.. 41.

(42)